Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture

The Secret World of Arrietty – Movie Review

Studio Ghibli (like its American cousin/rival, Pixar Studios) has such a flawless reputation for producing beautiful, magical, creative, and original masterpieces of feature animation that audiences are predisposed to liking any new movie that they produce. The Secret World of Arrietty is the latest from these Japanese animation masters and for me, while it is…

Oscar Schmoscar 2012

Last year’s nominees had a few pleasant surprises that I would have regretted missing out on if not for the noms. This year, nothing really compelled me and it’s unfortunate that I didn’t find the Best Picture nominees to be much of a checklist for exploration. Even the critics don’t love them all, since Hugo…

Five Reasons to Love Downton Abbey

It all started when I was keeping an eye out for shows to recommend to my friend who was really into the British series Lark Rise to Candleford. There was another much-hyped series from the UK called “Downton Abbey” that I told her to watch. Set in the early 20th century, the show follows the…

Midseason TV 2012

After a fall season that was full of promise but failed to deliver many instant classics (Revenge being perhaps the only exception), I had high hopes for midseason. It seems that lately a lot of cool stuff shows up in midseason (since the networks are probably reluctant to take chances with off-centre series and a…

The Iron Lady – Movie Review

Even though I was alive for most of her political career, I don’t know very much about Margaret Thatcher — the Iron Lady who is the subject of Meryl Streep’s latest Oscar-worthy impersonation. The movie version of Thatcher’s story starts oddly with Streep looking convincingly like a very senior Thatcher (probably somewhere around her current…

70 Science Fiction and Fantasy Movies to Watch Out for in 2012

70 Science Fiction and Fantasy Movies to Watch Out for in 2012 (from io9.com) Link out for a great summary of the scifi/fantasy/horror horizon for this new year. Reading through the list, I noticed four odd trends, and one great one: Fairytale reinterpretations – We already have TV’s Once Upon a Time and Grimm, now…

2011 TV Characters: Love and Hate

Having so many new shows this year also means that there are so many more characters for me to love or hate (which is good, since I don’t like to repeat names on this list from year to year). Characters I Love Surprisingly, new TV shows haven’t added many new faves to my list. The…

Nostalgia: Hugo & The Muppets – Movie Reviews

This week I watched two movies that unexpectedly shared a common theme. Hugo by director Martin Scorsese, is the story of a young orphan whose quest to repair a mechanical man leads to an adventure of discovery into the history of early cinema. The Muppets features a young man/muppet named Walter, whose quest is to…

Happy Feet Two – Movie Review

How can a movie that looks so much like the original, wonderful tale of singing and dancing animated penguins become such an awful sequel? The animation in Happy Feet 2 is great, with amazing Antarctic scenery, realistic-looking animals like seals, birds, and of course penguins who not only look like penguins but can dance and…